Tom Brady has returned to Foxborough a handful of times since his playing days with the New England Patriots ended, but never with a game to call.

That changed Sunday, when Brady arrived at Gillette Stadium as Fox’s lead NFL analyst for the Week 9 game between the Patriots and the Green Bay Packers. It is the first Patriots game he has worked since joining the network before the 2024 season, and video of his return drew warm, reverent reactions from fans.

Tom Brady’s Return to Gillette Stadium Stirs Nostalgia Among Fans

Brady spent part of pregame warmups on the field, where he stopped to chat with Patriots quarterback Drake Maye. Kevin Burkhardt has the play-by-play alongside him in the booth, while Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi work the sidelines.

Video of Brady back at Gillette Stadium quickly sparked a wave of nostalgia among Patriots fans before the 4:25 p.m. ET kickoff.

One fan summed up the mood simply: “I can just feel the nostalgia, ngl (not gonna lie).”

The NFL marked Brady’s return to Foxborough as a broadcaster with a post of its own, while Pro Football Network’s account compared the moment to LeBron James’ first game back in Cleveland after returning to the Cavaliers following his four seasons with the Miami Heat.

Another fan framed Sunday as a homecoming: “Goat has returned home.”

Brady went into the Patriots Hall of Fame in June 2024, a statue of him was unveiled in August 2025, and he attended former teammate Rob Gronkowski’s induction on Saturday.

His own induction was on another fan’s mind: “I was there when he got [inducted] in the Patriots HOF. Welcome back, GOAT.”

The sight of Brady was enough for one fan: “Seeing Brady here will never get old.”

Another fan went further: “The greatest. There will be none like him for a while.”

One fan zeroed in on Brady’s demeanor in the footage: “This dude looks like he’s doing everything he can to hold it together in this video.”

Brady Anticipated an Emotional Return to Foxborough

Fox had released promotional videos building up the return, and Brady previewed the trip himself on Tuesday, November 3, during an appearance on “The Herd With Colin Cowherd.”

He told Cowherd: “It’ll be certainly emotional. I mean, every inch of that stadium I’ve been through so many times, from the locker rooms to the meeting rooms, the fields. Just so many memorable plays in that stadium, big games, championship games, rivalry games, division-clinching games.”

In the same answer, he described what he hoped to get across from the booth: “So to be back there and to really understand what that Patriot organization is all about, and to convey that to the fans in a way where I’m not talking about myself? I’m really talking about this awesome program that’s been built, and the Patriots just always seem to do things the right way.”

Brady’s look back at those home years, in the same interview, centered on the roster around him rather than on himself: “Now that I’m removed from it a little bit, [I’m] so much more reflective on my time there and what made it so successful. We had great players, very smart. We weren’t all high draft picks, though. … We had a lot of guys who we valued being very smart, very tough, being able to adapt our system every week, and to make our opponents play left-handed.”

Brady won 135 games at Gillette Stadium, the most by a quarterback at one stadium in NFL history. On Sunday, he was back in that building to call a game rather than play in one.